“There is a voice inside you that whispers all day long. ‘I feel that this is right for me, I know that this is wrong.’ No teacher, preacher, parent, friend or wise man can decide … what’s right for you, just listen to the voice that speaks inside.” — Shel Silverstein.

Some of the greatest inventors, gurus, and geniuses of our time have referenced this thing called intuition as one of the main guiding forces in their lives that brought them new discoveries and excellence.

People such as Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs have often spoken about the importance of tapping into this sixth sense and trusting its guidance. Unfortunately, this comes a little easier said than done. Especially because there’s this pesky little character called ego that feels threatened by not having a final say, or complete control of how our life will go.

This is why ego often masks itself as intuition in order to protect itself from pain, change, or vulnerability. It is because of this trick that it is important for us to realize which voice is truly our intuition and which is the ego pretending to be intuition.

Below are 6 ways to understand whether its your intuition or your ego doing all the talking.

“Act on your inner guidance and give up your need for ‘proof’ that your inner guidance is authentic. The more you ask for proof, the less likely you are to receive any.” — Caroline Myss.

1) It’s not the loudest voice in our head

So in any given moment, if we are out and about or not in a state of complete relaxation we have a variety of thoughts passing through our mind. Most of those thoughts are not actually ours. They are the voice of the “collective unconscious“, meaning energetically we are tuning into the the thoughts and mindsets of any and everyone depending on the frequency we are at.

The less relaxed we are, the more swirling our thought patterns will be. The intuition is the soft whisper underneath all of these. That is why it is imperative to practice some sort of meditation or mindfulness practice in which we are breathing slowly and tapping into our inner silence and stillness. Intuition whispers, and will often connect to us through our feelings which means it’s also important to tap into our heart-centered awareness rather than just our mind.

2) It never pressures, threatens or forces us to do anything we don’t want to

The soul is timeless therefore the voice of our intuition (which comes from our higher self/soul) will never be the voice that feels as though it is saying to you, “you better do this right away or else… will happen.” The soul is completely confident that the person will get from A to B at the perfect moment in time it is supposed to happen.

The ego knows it’s time is limited and thrives on the feeling of fear in our body, which means it will often try to motivate us through this fear. This often comes through by way of negotiation (“just do this thing or see this person that you know is toxic for you one more time, maybe you’ll get a different result this time”) or threatening.

In fact, the mere feeling of not wanting to do something is the intuition telling you it’s not for you. The things you WANT to do, and want meaning out of celebration, love, joy, or excitement, are the very things your intuition is guiding you to.

3) It is always there and always guiding us, whether we know it or not

A common fear or misconception is that if we don’t know which voice is our intuition then we run the risk of making a wrong choice. However, this is not the full truth. Our intuition is always guiding us, whether we are consciously aware of it or not.

This is good news for people who don’t seem confident that they are tapping into this intuitive guidance. Every choice you make, and every outcome you experience is for a helpful reason. Being able to tap into our intuition makes the process a little more fun and easier because it shows that there is something of a higher intelligence helping us, but rest assured, if you truly feel no connection with your intuition, you will not miss out on anything you are destined to experience.

4) Like a muscle, it must be exercised in order to strengthen

Everyone’s intuition works differently, some people hear things, some just know, some people get signs from song lyrics or the advice they are inspired to give someone. The trick is getting accustomed to how YOUR intuition works, which can only happen by testing it out every once in a while. The more we trust the stronger it will become. Soon intuition becomes the major guiding force in our life.

5) It is not a magic 8 ball into a life of no pain or change

The ego often fantasizes that if only it can get tapped into intuition it will lead us away from pain and directly into happiness. However, what the soul knows, that the ego does not want to consider is that detrimental circumstances are often the most healing and transformative circumstances which is exactly why the intuition often leads us into these types of situations.

The soul is interested in one thing as a human, evolution and expansion, and it will always lead us into situations that will catalyze this, whether they are what our ego wants or not.

6) It often is not telling us what to do but rather how to be

Another misconception about intuition is that it is like a fairy godmother of directives telling us where to live, who to date, where to work etc…

If you find that your “intuition” is constantly telling you new places to move, or new people to date to the point that you never get quite settled into any one reality this is a sure sign your ego is masquerading as your intuition.

The ego fears being seen, and it knows that a settled, relaxed consciousness is the recipe for it being in the spotlight.

This is why it often pretends to be intuition telling us to keep moving, keep changing, keep doing something radically different under the guise of “happiness is just on the other side of this big change.” While our intuition will sometimes give us point blank directions on what to do or where to go, it is most often giving us the most loving and expanded perspective of our current situation.

Contrary to popular belief, we are always right where we need to be, and when it’s time to change, the universe will prompt just that in whatever form or fashion it needs to. The most powerful thing we can do on a daily basis is adopt the most expanded perspective of our current situation which is what the intuition is ultimately for.